4295. About symbolic portrayals in heaven, and correspondence, for example, that of knowledge and eating
On the street I thought for some time about eating, or what I should eat, and I realized that the angels were thinking of no such thing, but rather of higher knowledge, or knowing, and that as a result there came forth in my thought together with those in the world of spirits, the thought of eating. And in speaking with them I was informed that it was so, namely that a discussion about higher knowledge comes down with people on earth into those things that they eat, and that the reason for this correspondence is that higher knowledge is spiritual food, by which their life is nourished. In other cases likewise, there are correspondences, which people on earth would never be able to know anything about unless they were informed. They are so many that their kinds and species cannot be numbered. Such is the inflow of heaven, as it has been granted me to learn from many other experiences. 1749, 4 June. 1
Footnotes:
1. Astrological symbol of the sun, meaning Sunday.
4295. HOW THE CASE IS WITH REPRESENTATIVES AND CORRESPONDENCES IN HEAVEN, ILLUSTRATED BY THE CORRESPONDENCE OF KNOWLEDGE WITH EATING.
While walking in the street I thought for some time of eating, or of what I should eat, and I perceived that the angels thought of nothing of the kind, but of knowledges and intelligence, and that thence there existed in my mind, in common with those of the world of spirits, the thought of eating, and on speaking with them was informed that it was so. I thus learnt that discourse concerning knowledges falls with man into the idea of what he eats, and that the cause of such a correspondence is, that knowledges are spiritual food by which the life of spirits is sustained. In like manner correspondences are given in other things which man would never know unless instructed, and these are so many that they cannot be enumerated even as to their genera and species. Such is the influx of heaven, as it was given to me to know from [this and] a multitude of other proofs. - 1749, June 4.
4295. Repraesentativa quomodo se habent in coelo, et correspondentia, exemplo scientia et esus
Cogitavi in platea de esu, seu quid ederem, et hoc aliquantum temporis, percepi, quod angeli nihil tale cogitarent, sed de cognitionibus et scientia, et quod inde in mea cogitatione existeret cogitatio cum iis in mundo spirituum, de esu; et loquutus cum iis, et informatus quod ita esset: ita quod sermo de cognitionibus cadat apud hominem in ea quae comedit, et quod causa talis correspondentiae sit, quia cognitiones sunt cibi spirituales, et inde vita eorum nutriatur, in caeteris similiter dantur correspondentiae, quas homo nusquam nosse potest, nisi informatus; quae totidem sunt ut quoad genera et species non numerari queant: influxus coeli est talis, ut a pluribus aliis mihi datum est scire. 1749, 4 Junius.